cover image Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible

Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible

Clay Routledge. Oxford Univ., $27.95 (232p) ISBN 978-0-19-062942-7

Routledge (Nostalgia), professor of psychology at North Dakota State University, shares his thinking on “death, meaning, and the power of the invisible” in this informative but cursory book. Routledge explores the reasons humans of all ages aim to find meaning in life, fall back into patterns of teleological thinking, and return to beliefs in the supernatural despite evidence (and even stated beliefs) to the contrary. Essentially, the question Routledge considers is the age-old question of why humans believe things that don’t really make sense or are not supported by evidence—be that a tripartite God or Area 51. There is little original research presented here; instead, Routledge repurposes his own past work and the work of other social psychologists. He ends with a lengthy and not very original discussion of the divides and debates among religion, science, and atheism, and an uninspired call to “engage with those of different views than yours.” Routlege’s brand of pop psychology is an amusing one, though this work feels more like a collection of op-ed pieces or blog posts than a cohesive piece of reasoning. (June)